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BURMA RELATED NEWS - March 28,
2002.
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HEADLINES
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HRW - Burma: Professor Receives Harsh Sentence AP - Junta says peace will be its legacy for
future government
AP - New Book Goes on Myanmar Journey
VOA News - Burmese Government Reaffirms
Intention to Relinquish Power
Xinhuanet - Tensions Grow on Thai-Myanmar
Border: Report
DS - Indian minister
to visit Myanmar for three-nation highway project
Bkk Post - Burma opts
out of joint festival plan
FT - Reconciliation proves slow to arrive in
Burma
DS - Dhaka, Yangon to
form jt body to remove trade barriers
ABC online - Thailand protests to Burma
over clash
----------------------------------------------------------------- Human Rights Watch Burma: Professor Receives Harsh
Sentence
U.N. Human Rights Body Should Pressure Burma (Geneva, March 27, 2002) - The harsh prison sentence given to a prominent
Burmese academic this week underlines the urgent need for the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights in Geneva to increase pressure on Burma to
unconditionally release all political prisoners, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Commission will review a report on the human rights situation in Burma
tomorrow.
On March 25, the military government announced that Dr. Salai Tun Than, a
retired university professor, had been sentenced to seven years in prison under
Burma's national security legislation.
Since October 2000, the Burmese government has been carrying on confidence-building talks with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Rangoon. Serious human rights violations have occurred in Burma since the violent suppression of the pro-democracy movement in 1988. "With this sentence, the Burmese government is making it clear that it will
crush any and all dissent," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of Human
Rights Watch's Asia Division. "The harshness of the sentence suggests that,
political dialogue notwithstanding, the Rangoon regime is fundamentally
unchanged."
Dr. Salai Tun Than, seventy-four years old, was arrested for conducting a
peaceful protest on November 29, 2001, in front of the Rangoon City Hall. He
distributed copies of a petition letter calling on the Burmese government to
hold a general election in one year and to transfer power to the winners. Burma
has refused to implement the results of the May 1990 election that was
overwhelmingly won by the National League for Democracy (NLD).
Dr. Salai, retired from Yezin University in Pyinmana, Upper Burma, was
convicted under Article 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, a sweeping
provision that says any person who "infringes on the integrity, health, conduct
and respect of State military organizations and government employees," or
"spreads false news about the government" or "disrupts the morality or the
behavior of a group of people" shall be sentenced to up to seven years in
prison.
In a written submission to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro, the Special Rapporteur for Burma, condemned controls on freedom
of _expression_ under more than half a dozen laws, including the Emergency
Provisions Act of 1950, noting that these laws are frequently used to imprison
people for peacefully expressing their views or even for reading materials
deemed illegal. He welcomed the release of some Burmese political prisoners
since the beginning of 2001, but said that the unconditional release of all
political prisoners "is a pre-requisite for moving to the next phase of talks"
between the NLD and the government. Pinheiro is due to report on March 28 on the
results of his most recent fact finding trip, and the Commission will later
consider a resolution on human rights in Burma, which should include strong
recommendations, Human Rights Watch said.
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Junta says peace will be its
legacy for future government
Wed Mar 27, 7:50 AM ET By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Writer YANGON, Myanmar - Less than a month after claiming to have foiled a coup
plot, the head of Myanmar's ruling junta said Wednesday he is committed to
pacifying the country before handing power to a civilian government.
"Peace and tranquility are vital for the nation's development," said Gen.
Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Committee, as the junta
is called.
Than Shwe's comments came in a speech marking Armed Forces Day, the day the
military said members of former dictator Ne Win's family were allegedly planning
to seize power in a bloodless coup.
The alleged conspirators ? headed by Ne Win's son-in-law, Aye Zaw Win ?
wanted to make Than Shwe and others swear allegiance to Ne Win and set up a
puppet government, the junta said.
Aye Zaw Win and his three sons were arrested March 7. Ne Win and Aye Zaw
Win's wife, Sandar Win, are under de facto house arrest.
Than Shwe did not mention the coup plot in his speech, but said: "Efforts
are being made to ensure that when the time comes to hand over the
responsibilities of the state, succeeding governments will be able to provide
leadership with rectitude."
The junta leader also made no reference to closed-door reconciliation talks
the government has held with Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi since October
2000, but he left out criticism of the democracy leader which has been a regular
feature of past speeches.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 and the current group of generals
came to power in 1998, replacing Ne Win's administration after crushing a
pro-democracy movement.
The military government has said it will hand over power to a civilian
government "when the time comes" but has never given a time frame for doing
so.
The government has faced intense international criticism, especially from
the West, for suppressing democracy and human rights by jailing hundreds of
supporters of Suu Kyi, whose pro-democracy party swept general elections in 1990
but was never allowed to take office. Suu Kyi is also under virtual house
arrest.
On Wednesday, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy held a separate
function to mark Armed Forces Day. It was attended by about 450 party members as
well as British, American, French, South Korean and Japanese diplomats and
representatives of U.N. agencies.
Vice Chairman Tin Oo read out a statement calling for peaceful negotiations
to resolve the country's political problems and urged the military to win the
backing of Myanmar's citizens.
"No national endeavor of any kind can meet with success without the genuine
support of the people," he said.
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New Book Goes on Myanmar
Journey
Wed Mar 27,12:36 PM ET By VIJAY JOSHI, Associated Press Writer BANGKOK, Thailand - When Myanmar was still Burma and Britain was its ruler,
the Burmese used to call the white colonialists "the trouser people" because
they were the only ones to wear pants in the land of longyi, or the
sarong.
Today, Myanmar's generals in their well-pressed olive green trousers and
shirts filled with medals are its new trouser people who rule a subjugated
people with an iron fist couched in fear, just as the British did.
Bangkok-based journalist and writer Andrew Marshall uses the irreverent
nickname as the title of his new book, "The Trouser People," a caustically funny
travelogue through a time-warped country where little has changed since
independence in 1948. The book from Counterpoint Press reaches bookstores on
March 31.
Marshall has found an unusual way to write about Myanmar.
He dug up the long forgotten, never-published diaries of J. George Scott,
an unsung 19th-century adventurer, photographer, writer and senior colonial
administrator, and used it as a backdrop for his own adventures a century
later.
"I didn't want to write a grim book. I wanted to expose the fun of the
place," Marshall said in an interview.
The result is as much a journey through Britain's lost heritage as a
facetious indictment of the country's modern tragedy under military rule.
A diminutive preacher's son from Scotland, Scott spent most of his working
life in the remote mountains of Burma, mapping and exploring the lawless
frontiers of British colonial India.
Scott ? often photographed in a gargantuan pith helmet ? was a hand-picked
officer in the British Raj and a devout believer in the civilizing power of
colonial rule.
His diaries and photographs recorded the customs of obscure hill tribes,
including the black toothed headhunting Wa who believed they were the
descendants of tadpoles.
From the capital, Yangon, Marshall travels to Mandalay before tramping
farther afield to retrace Scott's excursions into the remote territories of the
country's many ethnic minorities.
He meets with the Wa who gave up headhunting only in the 1970s and now are
drug barons. He breaks bread with the Shan who are fighting a guerrilla war
against the junta. He hobnobs with the grandson of the last king of Burma.
Through it all, he pokes fun at the junta.
The junta's repression is omnipresent in the chilling undertones of
Marshall's anecdotal narrative.
Marshall boasts about how he hoodwinked the junta to sneak into the country
as a tourist several times between 1993 and 1998 for the book's research. As a
foreign journalist, his movements would have been heavily restricted.
Myanmar has been in the hands of the military since 1962. After becoming
independent as a parliamentary democracy, it was gripped by violent insurgencies
for 14 years by various ethnic tribes fighting the Burman dominated central
government. The generals renamed Burma as Myanmar in 1989 to break from the
past.
The junta called national elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power
when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won. The generals and Nobel
peace laureate Suu Kyi are now engaged in closed-door reconciliation talks that
have made little apparent progress.
The Trouser People makes barely two mentions of Suu Kyi and her democracy
struggle, a deliberate omission rare in any writings about Myanmar.
To write about "totalitarianism now and colonialism then," Marshall found a
prefect bridge in Scott.
He had heard about Scott's diaries, and found the notebooks ? "blotched
with jungle mold" and hardly ever dusted ? at the British Library in London. It
took him months to decipher the virtually illegible writings.
With "The Trouser People," the reader learns as much about Scott as about
Burma. Among the nuggets that Marshall unearthed from Scott's diaries is that
the Shan still spit betel juice into the foundation holes of a house to destroy
tiny devils that live there.
Born in 1851, Scott first came to Asia as a war correspondent for the
London Standard newspaper. Sometime after 1875, he arrived in Rangoon, the
Burmese capital now called Yangon, and took a job as a teacher at a missionary
school.
A natural linguist, he soon was speaking Burmese fluently. He often wore a
Burmese longyi, or sarong, worn by almost every male and female Burmese. Even
today, soldiers are virtually the only people who wear trousers.
Another little known fact that emerges is that soccer was brought to Burma
by Scott. In 1878, accompanied by his curious students, Scott strode on to a
bumpy games field in Rangoon, punted a soccer ball through the afternoon sky and
the Burmese game of football, as soccer is known the world over, was born.
In 1887, Scott led the first major British expedition for the
"pacification" of the Shan tribes. He continued his campaign until other tribes
were under British subjugation.
Scott recorded his adventures with a nonchalance typical of the British.
After a battle that left 24 Shan and three British soldiers dead, Scott wrote in
his diary: "Had some sandwiches and then went on."
Scott, who was married three times, died on April 4, 1935, at the age of 84
in Sussex.
So how could a man who led such an eventful and interesting life be so
little known?
"It is because Burma is so little known. That is its tragedy," said
Marshall.
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VOA News
Burmese Government Reaffirms Intention to Relinquish Power Scott Bobb Bangkok 27 Mar 2002 15:15 UTC Burma's military leadership has reaffirmed it intends to relinquish power
one day but says the time will come only after peace and stability have been
restored in the country. The remarks came in the first public speech by the head
of the military government since it announced three weeks ago that it had
uncovered a coup plot.
Senior General Than Shwe said Wednesday the Burmese military wants to
ensure that when the time comes to hand over the responsibilities of the state,
"the succeeding governments will be able to provide leadership in a climate of
stability and peace."
The General added the armed forces should work together with the people for
a peaceful and modern nation, but urged the military to guard against internal
and external dangers.
The head of the ruling military council was speaking in Rangoon to 7,000
representatives of the military during ceremonies marking armed forces
day.
Longtime observers said the speech reiterated earlier pledges by the
military to hand power to a civilian government one day, but did not provide any
indication that such a transition is foreseen in the near future. And they noted
the speech did not make any reference to the secret talks with the opposition
National League for Democracy, NLD, or the reported coup plot announced three
weeks ago. Security was tight at Wednesday's ceremonies.
But there have been recent indications that the military leadership feels
the crisis is easing. Senior General Than Shwe and the second and third ranking
officers on the military junta, Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt, appeared in public
together Monday for the first time since the reported plot. And the Burmese
government announced that U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, whose visit was
postponed because of the crisis, would be coming to Burma in late April.
A member of the Forum Asia democracy group, Sunai Phasuk, says the leaders
of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC, are signaling their
commitment to continue the talks with the NLD, because they both have a stake in
political settlement.
"What he [they] would like to achieve is some form of political settlement
that may allow the NLD to operate as a political party again. And at the same
time it will allow new political space for the SDC to compete with NLD without
using arms," Sunai Phasuk said.
Professor Sunai says the reported plot was likely used to sideline elements
that opposed the dialogue with the opposition. The authorities three weeks ago,
confined Burma's former military strongman Ne Win and his daughter, Sandar Win,
to their homes. They also detained the daughter's husband and three sons in
connection with the plot.
Three senior military commanders were also dismissed. Officials say the
husband and sons were scheming to kidnap the three senior leaders of the
military council and force them to back a government loyal to General Ne Win.
One hundred individuals have been questioned in connection with the reported
plot.
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Tensions Grow on Thai-Myanmar
Border: Report
Xinhuanet 2002-03-28 11:13:31 BANGKOK, March 28 (Xinhuanet)
-- Tensions of a possible conflict are growing along the Thai-Myanmar border as
Thai border troops and Myanmar's Wa nationality have both enhanced military
buildup following a bloody incident earlier this week, the Nation TV Channel
reported Thursday.
Thai intelligence sources said the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an armed
Myanmar minority ethnic group, has reinforced four bases opposite Thailand's
border areas in Chiang Mai province, 900 kilometers north of here, where
Thailand has already deployed over1,000 soldiers, heavy weapons and attack
planes.
The move followed a Monday incident in which a Thai border patrol team was
said to be attacked by UWSA intruders within the Thai side of the border, and a
Thai soldier was killed during a four-hour exchange of fire.
More seriously, the incident forced the Thai government to cancel a
scheduled trip by the Queen of Thailand to a nearby border village.
Thailand has already lodged a protest to the Myanmar authorities, although
the UWSA is not directly linked to the Myanmar government.
Thai Third Army Commander Udomchai Ongkasing, who oversees security on the
Thai-Myanmar border, said the matter will be raised during a Thai-Myanmar border
committee meeting to be held late next month in a Myanmar city.
However, he said the incident will not affect bilateral relations between
the two countries, adding Monday's attack may be a retaliation for the killings
of 13 Wa drug traffickers by Thai border troops during an anti-drug operation
last week.
Thai media reported that the Wa nationality's militants often cross border
to enter the Thai soil and are involved in drug trade along the Thai-Myanmar
border areas.
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The Daily Star
Indian minister to visit Myanmar for
three-nation highway project
AFP, New Delhi
Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh will visit Myanmar April 5-7 to
discuss plans to construct a three-nation highway connecting India, Myanmar and
Thailand.
"The proposal has been under consideration for some time and will
consolidate the relationship between the three countries by providing better
connectivity for trade, tourism and people-to-people contacts," an Indian
foreign ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Singh will hold talks with Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung and Thai
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai in Yangon, the spokeswoman said.
India and Myanmar will also discuss cooperation in oceanographic surveys as
well as medical and educational fields.
Bangkok Post - Thursday 28 March 2002
Burma opts out of joint festival plan
Internal turmoil given as reason
Burma has opted out of a planned joint Songkran festival in Mae
Sot-Myawaddy, citing internal political turmoil as the reason.
Sanan Kachornklam, secretary to the defence minister's chief adviser, said
he had been informed by Air Marshal Kyaw Than, former Burmese air force chief
and chairman of the Thai-Burmese Economic and Cultural Association, that Burma
would not be ready for the festival, originally scheduled for Mae Sot, Tak
province, on April 15 and Myawaddy on the other side of the Moei river the next
day.
AM Kyaw Than said there had been political unrest and the situation had not
yet returned to normal.
Maj-Gen Chit Thein, the Triangle Region commander, had been arrested and
his replacement had not been appointed.
``We still hope that, with more than 10 days to go, Burma will be ready and
the festival can go ahead as planned,'' Gen Sanan said.
Financial Times
Reconciliation proves slow to arrive in Burma Analysts say Suu Kyi could feel her credibility is on the line if she fails to secure concessions soon, writes Amy Kazmin Published: March 26 2002 16:42 | Last Updated: March 26 2002 21:53 General Ne Win ruled Burma with an iron hand for 26 years, setting a policy
based on his whims, xenophobia and deep faith in numerology and astrology. Even
after he stepped out of the spotlight in 1988, many Burmese suspected the former
dictator, now 92, could still be an obstacle to progress in the military junta's
talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader (pictured).
The spectre of Gen Ne Win's lingering influence was finally laid to rest
this month by the unexpected arrest of his son-in-law and three notorious
grandsons for allegedly plotting an anti-government coup.
The move against the once-invincible and widely-loathed family prompted
quiet rejoicing in Rangoon, while official explanations that the family had
opposed the junta's plan to build "multi-party democracy" in Burma also raised
diplomats' expectations of fresh progress in the talks with Ms Suu Kyi, now
confined to her family bungalow.
But the junta's subsequent postponement for a month of last week's
scheduled visit by Razali Ismail, the UN mediator, has prompted fresh debate
about whether senior generals really intend to move to a substantive dialogue
with Ms Suu Kyi.
What diplomats and pro-democracy leaders are now waiting for is Ms Suu
Kyi's release from her current confinement to fulfil her role as National League
of Democracy (NLD) president, helping to rebuild the tattered party
organisation. The party won democratic elections in 1990 but has never been
allowed to rule.
Mr Razali's intervention on his next visit, delayed by the junta until
April 22, is now seen as crucial for prodding the reluctant generals into
action.
Colonel Hla Min, the government's official spokesman, defended the
last-minute decision to temporarily delay the important visit. "After this
attempted coup, there are certain priorities that the government has to give
attention to," he said.
But diplomats - many of whom still doubt the seriousness of the coup plot -
have warned that the delay could fuel the demands for fresh sanctions and
pressure is mounting given the lack of visible progress towards ending the long
political impasse.
The US Congress is currently considering a ban on any imports from Burma
(the current value is estimated at $400m), while campaigners in Britain and
elsewhere, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and companies such as The Body
Shop, have begun a campaign for a ban on any new investment in the country.
"It's time for them to prove their genuine commitment to reform and they
haven't done that," John Jackson, director of The Burma Campaign UK, said of the
ruling junta.
Since the talks began, the regime has gradually released a trickle of over
250 political prisoners, at the cautious rate of about 10 per month, though
human rights groups estimate that more 1,300 remain imprisoned.
The NLD has also been allowed to re-open some of its offices and hold
meetings among small groups of its members without harassment, says U Lwin, a
party spokesman, though military intelligence officers still closely monitor
those who come and go from the party's Rangoon headquarters.
"What we really need, what we are looking for, is the opening of the
meaningful dialogue," says Mr U Lwin. "The sooner the better."
For the moment, though, the generals are turning their attention to
suspected disloyalty within the regime. The government has already sacked the
police chief, the air force chief, two regional commanders and the chief of the
army medical service and analysts suspect the purges probably are not over yet.
But while the junta wants the international community to wait patiently for
the army to get its house in order, analysts say the tentative reconciliation
process risks breaking down unless there is a big step forward soon.
Analysts also suggest that Ms Suu Kyi, who has so far endorsed the talks,
could feel her credibility is on the line if she fails to secure concessions,
including more political space for her party, soon. "We are crossing through a
very crucial period," Mr U Lwin said. "Everything is very fragile."
The Daily Star - Thu. March 28, 2002
Dhaka, Yangon to form jt body to remove
trade barriers
Bangladesh trade fair begins
M Shamsur Rahman from Yangon
Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to form a joint economic council to
remove barriers that stand in the way of trade between the two neighbour
countries.
The decision came at a meeting between the visiting Bangladesh trade
delegation led by Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and Myanmar's
highest policy making body State Development Council Secretary-I Lt General Khin
Nyunt on Tuesday.
The joint economic council will meet every year, Khosru said whiling
talking to journalists.
Both the countries also agreed to introduce 'account trade' and 'counter
trade' to facilitate improved trade.
Explaining it, the commerce minister said under the account and counter
trade arrangements, the Myanmar businessmen will keep the money they receive
through export of goods to Bangladesh in an account for importing similar amount
of goods from Bangladesh by using the money. "And similarly our exporters will
also keep their sale proceeds for importing from Myanmar."
Currently, due to foreign exchange crisis the Myanmar government does not
allow opening of direct letters of credits (LCs). The LCs are mostly opened by
third parties from other countries like Japan and Singapore.
"We also discussed on the formation of a standing committee for resolving
issues relating to border trade which crop up time to time," the commerce
minister said speaking on the outcome of his four-day visit of Myanmar.
Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and his Myanmar counterpart
Brigadier General Pyi Sone also jointly inaugurated weeklong Bangladesh
trade fair on the day at Yangon Trade Cente in Mingala Taungnyunt township here.
The fair will conclude on Saturday.
The two ministers urged the businessmen of the two countries to come
forward in boosting bilateral trade relations.
Some 60 Bangladeshi companies are participating in the fair to showcase
their products to explore the market of the next-door neighbour. A Bangladeshi
cultural team is also holding shows here.
Prior to leaving the Myanmar capital, Khosru termed his four-day mission 'a
very successful one'. He said the turnout at the fair is good and Bangladeshi
goods are in great demand in Myanmar.
Earlier on Monday Khasro addressed a seminar titled Prospects of
Myanmar-Bangladesh Bilateral Trade at the Information and Communication
Technology Park auditorium. Leading businessmen of Myanmar attended the
seminar.
27/03/2002 05:18:22 | ABC Radio Australia
News
Thailand protests to Burma over
clash
Thailand has lodged an official protest with Burma over a clash with a Thai
border patrol that forced Queen Sirikit to cancel a scheduled visit to the
area.
Thailand's deputy defence minister has ordered an investigation into the
fighting which left one Thai soldier dead and another wounded in northern Chiang
Mai province.
Thai army officials believe 30 rebel fighters belonging to the United Wa
State Army, which is widely accused of controlling the drugs trade along the
border, were involved.
Queen Sirikit had been due to fly from Chiang Mai to visit a royal project
on the border, but the gunfight flared up shortly before her scheduled arrival
time. |